I've been driving my mother's 2004 Mariner lately and have noticed a persistent "roar" coming from the rear of the vehicle. I asked Ma about it, and she's never noticed it - which doesn't mean it's new- just that she doesn't notice noises that might come from a vehicle. She's hard of hearing... no ear for mechanical subtlety, and tends to drive with the window down or cracked, so wind noise deafens her to everything.

Well, I notice when I first start off in the Mariner in the morning, there is a noticeable rubbing sound coming from the rear that seems to change frequency with the rotation of the tires. I'd almost say it sounds like a dragging break shoe or rust, but depressing the brakes does nothing to stop or change the sound. It's a sort of a grumbling "scrape, scrape, scrape" sound that speeds up as the vehicle accelerates. The volume also seems to increase with speed. By highway speed it pretty well drowns out the radio. Being familiar with the sounds of bad bearings in heavy machinery, I'd almost say this sounds like a bad case of rusty race chatter.

She's gone to the dealer about it and they say it's tire noise - typical Continental tires. Unless the tires are made of rusty steel, I'm calling BS on that diagnosis. I can pick out the tire noise (higher frequency) and then there's the deep wall of sound I'm talking about. I've heard of issues with the Explorer and Mountaineer (yes, different vehicles / platform) rear axles, but can't find anything on the Mariner / Escape / Tribute and rear axle noise like this.

Anybody experiencing / have experienced this? Any troubleshooting tips?

Thanks.

 

FWD or 4WD?

 

It's a 4wd.

 

Not sure what 4WD was like in '04. Can you turn it on/off? If it's the ITCC system with no user input at a constant speed your FWD only but it still could be in the rear differential, axles or wheel bearings. Jack up the rearend and rotate the tires. You "might" be able to feel something.